‘Textbook case of ethnic cleansing’

UN human rights chief accuses Myanmar of waging ‘systematic attack’ on Rohingyas

Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh), Sept. 11: The situation in Myanmar is a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”, the United Nations rights chief said on Monday, as the number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing the country for Bangladesh topped 300,000.

On Monday the UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein accused Myanmar of waging a “systematic attack” on the Rohingya and warned that “ethnic cleansing” seemed to be under way.

“Because Myanmar has refused access to human rights investigators the current situation cannot yet be fully assessed, but the situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing,” he told the UN Human Rights Council.

He cited reports that Myanmar authorities had begun to lay landmines along the border with Bangladesh and would require returnees to provide "proof of citizenship".

Rohingya have been stripped of civil and political rights including citizenship rights for decades, he added.

“I call on the government to end its current cruel military operation, with accountability for all violations that have occurred, and to reverse the pattern of severe and widespread discrimination against the Rohingya population,” Mr Zeid said. “The situation seems a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”

Last year Mr Zeid’s office issued a report, based on interviews with Rohingya who fled to Bangladesh after a previous military assault, which he said on Monday had “suggested a widespread or systematic attack against the community, possibly amounting to crimes against humanity”.

We have received multiple reports and satellite imagery of security forces and local militia burning Rohingya villages, and consistent accounts of extrajudicial killings, including shooting fleeing civilians — Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN human rights chief